Monday, October 27, 2014

FLASH: Marden's in Waterville took all 80 boxes of flooring back without question, had four guys there to unload it for us, and just continued to wow us with customer service. How cool was that?

So, the laminate is gone and yesterday I started in on the lower level space by moving seven heat pump heaters, eight big drywall sections, our pile of scrap lumber, and anything else that wasn't nailed down up to the apartment to store there. I was able to move everything but the two compressors, which weigh several hundred pounds it seems.

Time to spot clean the floor. Between not sealing the floor when we had the chance (it hadn't cured enough by then though), me painting the place, the sprinkler guys coming in with their grease, and then me painting again, there are some spots to get rid of before the cleaning can begin.

I am carefully erasing all the paint drips with OOPS and with a bit of elbow grease, the stuff gets the latex paint right out. The dry stuff is covering a grease stain left by the spray foam guy. I am trying to suck out the grease with this cleaner. If that doesn't work, I am going for the dry Oxy-clean from Ocean State.

I have been doing this and trying to set up an overseas auction bid for Wednesday morning. What's with everything coming up overseas all of a sudden? This is my second international auction bid in the last month.

After a few more hours tomorrow on my hand and knees scrubbing spots out, I'll be ready to for vacuuming, then a quick mop and dry before starting in on the acid etching cleaning method. Finally, we'll be able to seal the floor, hopefully by Thursday or Friday of this week. Our potential tenants like the natural color of the floor and so want us to clear seal it...fine with me...I like the color too.

The compressors that I couldn't move....we'll get them out before we finish the floor

There is nice light in here right now.

The floor is swept, but still filthy. I am bringing in the big gun vacuum tomorrow. A good mopping will do this floor wonders again. But look how big the space is here...nice I hardly notice the sprinkler pipes anymore.

The floor should be good and clean by tomorrow night. fingers crossed.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Greg and I researched what would be the right flooring for the lower level that would work for most any business we wanted to put in there...gallery, office, etc. In the beginning of July, we found a nice laminate flooring that would work well for everything...it wasn't hardwood, so it would work in a daylight lower level space, it wasn't carpet, which might get musty on a concrete floor over time, and it wasn't an expensive tile, which would've broken the bank at the time. We went ahead and bought 1500 square feet....80 boxes of the stuff. The flooring manager was skeptical that we had let the cement cure enough to put a floor over it. "Ideally, you want at least six months before putting a floor down over a new concrete slab." The moisture content of the concrete was supposed to register in the somewhere around 4-6% and we had four months since the pour and a moisture reading of 18%. We would chance it.

Well, here it is, October 18th and this is what the laminate flooring looks like today:

Yep, we never got the chance to put it down because of the mess up with the sprinkler company and their using the lower level as a workspace and then us getting busy with other things.

So here we are, seven months after pouring the slab, dunno what the moisture content is, but probably closer to what we would need to put this flooring down.

Except.....

Our new potential tenants for the lower level want to leave the concrete floor as is and just seal it with a clear coat....the same treatment we thought about doing from the start, but cast aside because we thought a gallery or an office space would want something "wood like" and slick.

We love that the potential new tenants are embracing the "industrial chic" look that Greg and I bandied about when we were building the space.

But, that leaves us with 1500 square feet of flooring. We thought about moving it upstairs to use in bedrooms and such, but we really have other plans in our minds for those spaces. We thought of taking it back, but thought we would offer it locally first. The flooring is beautiful and durable and looks like mahogany planking.

It has a foam backing and is a snap and click floating floor, so even I can install it!

It even comes with the rolls of plastic underlayment needed for installation, and you can see that the boxes still have their plastic wrap on, never been opened.

So, if you have a need for a lot of good quality laminate flooring and you are near Belfast, hit us up!

UPDATE: Incredibly, Marden's took the flooring back lock stock and barrel and gave us full price for it. They have such excellent customer service. We love Mardens!

Am leaving for a week on a road trip with my mom. Updates on what is happening at the Ocean House will resume upon my return. Suffice it to say that if the potential tenants decide that the space is right for them...you will all LOVE us!!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Three days of digging, filling, grading, stoning, and then mulching has gotten us a much improved back lot. The next rain will wash the peastone and we will have a lovely, simple back lot without hot top, something that neither Greg nor I wanted to do. There is enough asphalt in the world! We missed the planting season, so the whole lot still looks a bit barren, but we plan to move a lot of the hydrangea we have here at our house (we have three enormous patches of it!) to the berm that Dan made at the back of the lot, this will do a lot to screen the graffiti-laden tractor trailers that reside on the next lot over from our customers and tenants.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Dan Waldron and his merry band of men started working on the back lot to make it more parking friendly. We finally got rid of the last dumpster and the port-o-potty, which will probably upset "the regulars." Anyway, there was still the matter of what to do with the giant granite boulders that were dug up from in front of the building. You can see below how large they actually are. Somehow, someway, we are going to make them into natural benches for next summer's food truck onslaught in the back forty.

Our plan is to have food trucks in the far corner of the lot away from the building,. The trees make a lovely shady spot to have lunch. The grassy hill across from it will accommodate the sun worshipers.

The parking area for the building. Note the conduit that Dan placed yesterday. We are putting in lamp posts to light the back at night.

With just digging a trench for the conduit, Dan dug up some old intact bottles, including an old amber bottle of "Dazzle" a late 1940s detergent.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Fall has been spectacular in Maine this year. This is perhaps the first time in three weeks that we have had a rainy night and early morning like we just did. The leaves are gorgeous and just at their most wonderful. Fall is my favorite season and since Greg and I missed summer altogether, I decided to slow down and enjoy the nice weather and calm streets before winter projects set in.

Lots of boats have been hauled. We still hold out hope for some lovely days like today to go boating.

Our thoughts are turning soon to the apartment, which is the next phase after we finish the lower level. I have to paint the walls and the pipes here before doing anything else, besides get a bathroom or two in place!

Oh, and a kitchen built too!

The sprinkler pipes in the apartment have left the whole thing kind of quirky.

We have had a few interested parties in the lower level space. I am loathe to show it because it really isn't finished and I think people might not see the potential it has. I've spent part of every day putting on four coats of white linen paint on the darn sprinkler pipes and about the same time filling the holes left by the sprinkler company. I think the pipes finally fit in.

The lovely hole in the my brand new walls left by an errant try at getting the pipe out of the building!

Lisa and Jasmine have been moving in for the last several weeks, and the place looks great. There appears to be a constant stream of people going in the door!

I love the weathervanes in the window...some of you may know of my penchant for weathervanes, and in fact, if you click here, you can hear the audio podcast of my noontime art talk on American weathervanes at the Colby Museum last year.

The ole' girl glows now with all the attention!

We have lawn!

and some beautiful fall color.

Stay tuned for photos and commentary on the back lot, which gets graded, gets parking spaced. and prettied up this week...fingers crossed.

A bit about us

Welcome to Slum and Blight: This is a project blog, documenting our work on an old building that my spouse Greg and I bought each other for our wedding present. The city where we live declared our neighborhood "Slum and Blight" in order to qualify for government funds to help fix up this downtown area. We like to think of our building as the gateway to Slum and Blight. Sit back, relax and scroll through my entries about the work we are doing.